Prontor S shutter cocking lever spring

[Stuart Walker]

Is there any trick to winding up the torsion spring on the cocking lever and not knocking off the hairspring on the swinging latch at the same time and getting the lever down onto its post with everything lined up at the time?

[daveh]

I solved this problem years ago but I've no idea now how I did it. Probably just a combination of patience and gentle holding and prodding here and there. Wait for the definitive answer from PeterW and the others.

[PeterW]

Hi Stuart,

Like Dave I've solved this but it was some years ago. I always found Prontors a little more fiddling than Compurs to put together again, particularly the smaller diameter versions, but I don't recall any particular tricks to it.

I think as Dave says it's a matter of trying and keeping on trying until everything drops into place.

On leaf shutter overhaul in general I was helped a lot by Daniel Mitchell's website with its numerous excellent pictures. He covers the Klio, which was Zeiss Ikon's name for the Prontor S, and also the Prontor SVS, which was the updated version of the S.

His website was daniel.mitchell.name/cameras/index.html

I think he changed his host but you should get an automatic "forwarding" to it.

If you have problems finding it try pheugo.com/cameras/index.php

He's also got some useful links to other repair sites.

Hope this helps.

PeterW

[Stuart Walker]

Thanks for replies. I'm familiar with Daniel Mitchell's site, it is very useful. I think I could eventually get the thing back, but it occurs to me that in the factory they must have had a better way. I've got a copy of a factory service manual, but it just says replace the spring! The problem is twisting it around to get some torque into the spring without the end slipping out or the catch hair spring dislodging. I had to take it off because this hairspring was broken, and it seemed to have a turn of spring twist in it. The spring wire is quite thin compared to some others so it needs more twist to get enough torque into it.

[daveh]

In the late 1960s I had four years in Cardiff. During that time I got to know a little a camera repair man. I've no idea now how or why - perhaps he was a friend of a friend. All I can remember is that he had boxes and boxes of springs and levers from every shutter known to man. I do remember bending a spring myself form orthodontic wire, but I can't remember whether that was a successful or failed attempt, or was before or after I had met the camera repair man.

Those were the days when everything was mendable, and I used to try to mend things much more than I now.

[Stuart Walker]

I could have done with those boxes of springs your camera repair man had. Anyway after mangling the original spring I made another from an old compression spring which had thicker wire, hence a stiffer spring. This only required a part of a turn to get sufficient tension, instead of a complete turn, which made it easier to fit the cocking lever. This seems to work alright except the tension on the self timer cam is a bit too great so that it doesn't always run. I can live without the self timer.

By the way I did clean the shutter blades and the timer escapement so that wasn't the problem. There just wasn't enough force in the cocking lever to make the shutter run. The speeds sound approximately right. The shutter is in a Baldinette, so once I've cleaned the glass I'll have to see if it works! It's got a Radionar lens, which I believe is one of the better triplets, but will presumably work better stopped down.